


This Place is Haunted

by recrudescence



Category: Firefly
Genre: Community: purimgifts, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-01
Updated: 2010-01-01
Packaged: 2017-10-05 14:39:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/42795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/recrudescence/pseuds/recrudescence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Serenity's got a ghost</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Place is Haunted

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cosmogyral](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmogyral/gifts).



  
  
  
**Entry tags:** |   
[author: recrudescence](http://community.livejournal.com/purimgifts/tag/author:+recrudescence), [day 3](http://community.livejournal.com/purimgifts/tag/day+3), [fandom: firefly](http://community.livejournal.com/purimgifts/tag/fandom:+firefly), [for nextian](http://community.livejournal.com/purimgifts/tag/for+nextian)  
  
---|---  
  
_**This Place is Haunted (Firefly)**_  
**Fandom:** Firefly  
**Title:** This Place is Haunted  
**Author:** [](http://recrudescence.livejournal.com/profile)[**recrudescence**](http://recrudescence.livejournal.com/)  
**Written for:** [](http://nextian.livejournal.com/profile)[**nextian**](http://nextian.livejournal.com/)  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Pairing:** Zoe/Wash  
**Disclaimer:** I do not own or profit from any of the source material.   
**Word Count:** 867

  
Serenity's got a ghost.

Kaylee's the first to pick up on it. She comes to Zoe, unnerved and slightly sheepish, saying that Serenity's been talking to her. Literally. She'll wake up with the voice still fresh in her head, and as it turns out, Serenity sounds a lot like Wash.

\--

 

Jayne says the ship's only got room for one bughouse crazy girl. The next afternoon, he stumbles over a plastic dinosaur in the galley and sprains a toe. River says the pilot put it there. When Jayne colorfully reminds her that _she's_ the pilot, she just smiles more enigmatically than usual.

\--

 

Everyone clusters together on the bridge to try and solve the problem when Mal can't get a signal even though they're already in atmo for Santo, and they all hear it then.

"I'm not really claiming to be the ship itself, since that strikes me as being just a little presumptuous," –River makes a face— "but there is something kind of metaphysical going on with this situation."

It definitely sounds like Wash. Zoe thinks she's losing her mind. Losing her husband was bad enough.

The com crackles once and their connection is suddenly as strong as it should have been all along. Nobody says anything for a while.

"Is he _haunting_ us?" Jayne finally blurts out, sounding very irate and more than a little nervous.

Mal looks at him with a healthy dose of exasperation, which settles Zoe's nerves somewhat. "Ain't no such thing. More likely it's a _yú bèn_ joke our esteemed pilot got up to a while back that's only just now popping up. For…whatever reason," he finishes lamely, glancing at her in case she's got any more light to shed on the subject.

She doesn't, but she puts a reassuring hand on Kaylee's shoulder anyway. "Sure. He'd always say how dull it could get all by his lonesome up here. Must be some kind of glitch."

\--

 

When Wash shows up in bed beside her one morning, Zoe pulls a pistol on him. "You're gonna explain some things to me. Right now."

His face settles into a moue like she's just spoiled the punchline of an elaborate joke he was telling. The blankets are bunched up under his arms, too high to show much of anything. Maybe it's her imagination, but she could swear his middle looks unnaturally concave. She's got her eyes and her gun trained on his face, though, so she could be wrong.

Wash smoothes at a wrinkle in the sheets. "I missed you."

The next thing she knows, she's opening her eyes to find nothing in bed with her but a loaded weapon and a too-wet pillow.

\--

 

"She ain't right," Inara's saying when Zoe trudges into the common area, and something about that is odd, though she can't put her finger on why. She walks right on by, goes to the infirmary for smoother, and gets a dose from Kaylee, who's inventorying the medical supplies. There's something odd about that, too.

\--

 

Muted and hazy, unformed shapes swim unsteadily in front of her half-open eyes. Her arms and legs feel lead-weighted and her mouth might as well be welded shut.

"Nothing's perfect, of course," Kaylee's voice says plaintively. "It was your idea to go back to Mr. Universe's moon for leftovers in the first place, cap'n. All it's gonna take is a little more time."

She isn't in her own bed, Zoe can tell that much, and that just isn't acceptable. She needs to get back to her bunk, to _their_ bunk, so she can be there in case Wash comes back. Her fingers spasm, but nothing more. There's a garbled groan in the air.

Five spindly smears of white in her line of vision: River's fingers are on her forehead. "Please believe me. Things will be better for you. I know what it's like, and it will be better. Lie still and let us help. Please."

Simon's voice, at the foot of the bed, is calm and clinical, accompanied by muted beeps as if he's making notes on a datapad. "We all agreed it would be for the best. You were practically catatonic after Miranda."

"Standard therapeutic routine. The data…it's been more difficult to maintain than expected." River sounds almost embarrassed.

"We're still workin' on it. We'll get it right." And how many times has she heard the captain say _that_ before? Granted, his voice hasn't ever been all trembly before. "Everything's gonna be fine, Zo, hear? We're all taking care of you."

She wants to say something back to him, some bland comment about her experiences with his brilliantly-conceived plans, but he just talks on over her before the words are completely pieced together in her slow-moving mind.

"Won't take long now. Just gotta override more of the original program, get it reconfigured. Write him back in, then wean her off, gradual-like, and bring her back into the world when she's ready."

\--

 

When she sees him next, her husband has a smirk on his face, like this time he's just told the best joke of his comedic career.

"Hey," says Wash, holding open his arms and grinning brighter than stars. "I missed you."

 

\--

  


 

_The moon lies on the river  
like a drop of oil.  
The children come to the banks to be healed  
of their wounds and bruises.  
The fathers who gave them their wounds and bruises  
come to be healed of their rage.  
The mothers grow lovely; their faces soften,  
the birds in their throats awake.  
They all stand hand in hand  
and the trees around them,  
forever on the verge  
of becoming one of them,  
stop shuddering and speak their first word._

_But that is not the beginning.  
It is the end of the story,  
and before we come to the end,  
the mothers and fathers and children  
must find their way to the river,  
separately, with no one to guide them.  
That is the long, pitiless part,  
and it will scare you. _

**  
Photo: Ruven Afanador  
Poem: "Bedtime Story" by Lisel Mueller**


End file.
